Manafort wants trial moved, says Alexandria too liberal

By Spencer S. Hau and Rachel Weiner, The Washington Post

Friday

Jul 6, 2018 at 7:30 PMJul 6, 2018 at 7:37 PM

Attorneys for Paul Manafort asked a federal judge to move his fast-approaching criminal bank and tax fraud trial from Alexandria to Roanoke, Virginia, saying a more Republican-friendly jury would decide his guilt or innocence more fairly.

The president's former campaign chairman's prosecution has "become theatre in the continuing controversy" surrounding the president and his election, defense attorney's argue, and as a result, "It is difficult, if not impossible, to divorce the issues in this case from the political views of potential jurors."

"It is not a stretch to expect that voters who supported Secretary Clinton would be predisposed against Mr. Manafort or that voters who supported President Donald Trump would be less inclined toward the Special Counsel," attorneys Kevin Downing, Thomas Zehnle and Jay Nanavati wrote in a 10-page motion to change venue.

Manafort's trial is set to begin in federal court in Alexandria on July 25. The charges relate to his work for a pro-Russian political party in the Ukraine, and stem from the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He faces related charges in federal court in the District.

Judge T.S. Ellis III raised the possibility of a venue change to Roanoke or Richmond at a hearing last week, when Manafort's attorneys suggested leaks of information about the case had poisoned any potential jury.

Downing had suggested the case could be dismissed or delayed; Ellis said neither would happen.

By contrast, the Roanoke area of the western district of Virginia favored Trump over Clinton by nearly the opposite, 63 to 37 percent.

"Nowhere in the country is the bias against Mr. Manafort more apparent than here in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area," they write. "The phrase 'inside-the-beltway' was coined to capture the area's preoccupation with all things political."

Because many in rural Virginia lack broadband internet access and the media market is much smaller, Manafort's attorneys also argue that potential jurors around Roanoke have not been saturated with news about the case, as northern Virginians have.

Manafort singled out his indictment on new witness tampering charges on June 8 and his jailing ordered a week later by a federal judge in the District of Columbia for unleashing "a spate of intensely negative news coverage suggesting that Mr. Manafort violated the law."

Manafort's lawyers observed that President Trump himself added to their concern, when he tweeted that his former aide got a "tough sentence," incorrectly suggesting that Manafort had been sentenced for committing a crime, rather than having his bail revoked for violating its terms.

"Mr. Manafort submits that a fair trial will impossible without a change of venue to Roanoke, Virginia," the lawyers conclude.

Also on Friday, attorneys for the special counsel made clear in a filing how they plan to link Manafort's alleged bank fraud to the Trump campaign.

"The government does not intend to present at trial evidence or argument concerning collusion with the Russian government," Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye writes.

However, he said prosecutors will present evidence that banker Stephen Calk helped Manafort obtain $16 million in loans because he hoped to get a position in the Trump administration.

"In short, the defendant's role with the Trump campaign is relevant and inextricably intertwined with the . . . bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy charges. Here, it would be difficult for the jury to understand why the loans were approved without understanding that the lender approved the loans, in spite of the identified deficiencies, because the senior executive factored in his own personal ambition," Asonye writes.

Manafort trial in D.C. federal court is set to begin on Sept. 17.

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